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Mallah-Divine Mallah (author) The Hidden Hand:Duality of Self (Book) Published June 12, 2016 ISBN-13: 978-1532967375 Bomani resurfaces in a gentrified Bushwick after 10 years in a federal prison. He has a different focus that might bring him into direct conflict with his former crew GBK or the established remnants from the Civil Rights Era leadership. Under Max Million, GBK has grown into a national organization that has mastered the art of block pressure. He expects Bomani to take the underboss position. Bomani has learned things and seen things he cannot ignore. It politicized him. He owes a debt to society and pledged his life to a higher cause than getting money. He faces Duality of Self. The only question is will he survive?

Today, June 7th, would've been Prince's 58th birthday. Back in the 1980s, my 2 daughters were Prince fanatics. And it wasn't long before after being constantly exposed to his unique funky sound, I became a fan of his too, even accompanying them to his concerts over the years. In the early 90s, however, I pretty much abandoned the ol boy because his music no longer hooked me like the songs back in his hey day. "Adore" was the last song by him that I really dug. But I did take the title of my last self-published effort "The Only One", from a line in his song "I wanna be your lover." Saturday, my daughter is having a belated birthday observation for Prince. All the invitees are requested to wear purple and nothing but Prince albums will be played. She's expecting about 25 people because all of her friends were Prince devotees also. I will be there, too, partying like it's 1999. Prince was not only mischievous, he was also mystical, something I dug. A lot of double entendre is contained in his lyrics as well as cryptic messages. In one of his biggest hits "Let's Go Crazy" his words proved to be prophetic. R.I.P. Prince Rogers Nelson. I'm just hangin around, hoping to see the results of the presidential election, then - come what may... I've been crazy long enough. Prelude to "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince Dearly beloved We are gathered here today 2 get through this thing called life Electric word life It means forever and that's a mighty long time But I'm here 2 tell u There's something else The afterworld A world of never ending happiness U can always see the sun, day or night So when u call up that shrink in Beverly Hills U know the one - Dr Everything'll Be Alright Instead of asking him how much of your time is left Ask him how much of your mind, baby 'Cuz in this life Things are much harder than in the afterworld In this life You're on your own And if de-elevator tries 2 bring u down Go crazy - punch a higher floor...

My personal experience with the world wide web mirrors exactly what Rushkoff is saying in this video. If good to hear that he is hopeful about the long term prospects for the web, for the the same reasons that I am. This video and the commentary below is from the Big Think website. “It's harder for most people to making a living now than it was before the rise of online businesses like Facebook and Amazon. That's because the digital economy is hurting the real economy, says media theorist Douglas Rushkoff. Competition is increasingly fierce in just about every industry, and digital technologies have allowed companies to pursue monopolies like never before — because they chase the entire world's population as a customer base. Businesses have always sought growth, but applying the growth mindset to digital technology wields some very disturbing results. Take Twitter for instance: as a company, it makes $500 billion each quarter, but market observers have questioned the company's value because it doesn't have a growth strategy. Compare that to Amazon or Facebook or Google, each of which span multiple industries and have grown rapidly over the last decade. Interestingly, for all our fascination with businesses owned by shareholders, family businesses perform better in just about every metric. The reason, says Rushkoff, is that family businesses are more concerned for the future — the long term future, not just next quarter. Rushkoff explains more surprising facts about our digital economy in his book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity.” This net video

Sara I'm not sure, but something tells me that all those stats and other excuses you're providing to either try to explain away or deflect from why the Black violence rate in Chicago far out numbers that of Whites will be any comfort to the thousands of Black victims and thier families who are suffering from the effects of essential genocide. Go to a hospital room of a teenager who just got shot over being in the wrong neighborhood and say: "Hey there young brother! I know you are a victim of Black on Black violence, and since the gang who popped you also threatened your family too...they're probably still in danger. But if it's any comfort to you there is a White man somewhere in this SAME hospital who is also a victim of White on White violence after having a couple teeth knocked out in a drunken brawl." You better say it fast... Deflection and pointing the finger at what other people are going through doesn't help us. All it does is deflect us from focusing on finding the solutions to the very real problems that affect our communities.